Controlling the Herd

United Nations Small Arms Treaty Will Take Effect on Christmas Eve

In nations around the world, the United Nations Small Arms Treaty will take effect on Christmas Eve of this year.

Published on

November 18, 2014

In nations around the world, the United Nations Small Arms Treaty will take effect on Christmas Eve of this year.

Of course, the United States is not one of those countries as the the Senate hasn’t even voted on the treaty yet, let alone actually ratified it by the 2/3 majority vote required. The strong Republican majority which will convene in 2015 makes it even less likely that this treaty would ever pass the US Senate.

However, some gun rights advocates are worried that the Obama administration, who has made it clear that the president plans to act executively on several other issues, may use the treaty as an excuse to attempt to impose further gun regulations via executive order. This could especially hold true in regards to import/export restrictions, something the president has already acted on in recent years. According to TheBlaze:

“We are worried about an end-run around Congress,” Mortensen told TheBlaze. “Barack Obama or a future anti-gun president could use ATT and international norms compliance to rationalize enacting gun control policies through executive actions, especially in the import and export realms.”

“Even now, with an existing appropriations rider prohibiting action to implement the treaty unless it is approved by Congress, administration officials are publicly professing support for international efforts to bring the treaty into effect. That’s outrageous,” she added.

As I’ve previously reported, the treaty, as it is currently written, would not give the UN the power to regulate the trade of arms inside of a nation’s borders. However, it does deal strongly with the import/export of firearms and could affect the already strained availability of foreign made arms/ammo in the US.